Artemisia drinking the ashes of King Mausolus, after Ambroise Dubois

The presence of this work at the Château de Cadillac is a direct reference to Marie de Médicis, Queen of France from 1600 to 1610 through her marriage to Henry IV, who was widowed in 1610 and served as regent on behalf of her son, Louis XIII, until 1614.  

Aware of the importance of the arts in a political communication strategy, Marie de Médicis excelled in the development of a mytho-history during her regency. Between 1600 and 1610, both the king and the queen turned to the arts to assert their legitimacy, which had been jeopardised by the plots of Biron (1602) and the Entragues (1604). Upon the king’s death, the queen’s legitimacy was further weakened, and she sought a new iconographic strategy capable of justifying the king’s physical absence in order to secure acceptance of the regency (1610–1617).

The regent found support in Nicolas Houël, who, in his *Histoire d’Artémise*, compared Artémise to Catherine de’ Medici, in the grief of the widow following the death of her husband Mausolus, for whom she built a sumptuous mausoleum. Nicolas Houël’s manuscript, accompanied by drawings by Antoine Caron, together with the accompanying sonnets, formed the basis for the ‘Tenture d’Artémise’ project, drawing a parallel between the life of Artemisia II, widow of King Mausolus and mother of Lygdamis (4th century BC) and that of Catherine de’ Medici, widow of Henry II since 1559.

The ‘Tenture d’Artémise’, commissioned by Henry IV, draws on this preliminary work and adapts it to the reigning queen, Marie de Médicis. One of the best-known scenes depicts Artemisia drinking the ashes of Mausolus from a cup as a sign of love and fidelity. On a symbolic level, the queen becomes the new cinerary amphora of the royal body. Through this embodiment, the queen can legitimately take his place in his duties.

Since the^16th century, this theme has formed part of the European iconographic repertoire depicting princely widows aspiring to regency, and was adopted by numerous European courts in order to legitimise the political actions of a king’s widow. Several widowed queens acquired paintings or tapestries on this theme: Henrietta of England, Louise de Coligny, widow of William of Orange, and Elizabeth of Bohemia, widow of Frederick V.

Ambroise Dubois, born in Antwerp around 1543 and died at Fontainebleau in 1614 or 1615, was a French painter of Flemish origin, belonging to the second school of Fontainebleau. He was trained amongst the Mannerist painters of Antwerp in the second half of the^16th century. Having served Henry IV and Marie de’ Medici, the vast majority of his known works are housed at the Château de Fontainebleau.

The composition of the scene is clear and narrative: on the left, bones are being burnt so that they may be ingested, whilst in the centre, Artemisia solemnly raises a cup which she is about to drink from. The figure of the queen is brought to life by the arabesques of the drapery, lending greater depth to the figures.

The colour palette, with its deep shadows and the greenish pallor of the landscape in the background, sets off the draped figure in a striking red, contrasting with the secondary colours of green and mauve. The female figure, with her high forehead and aquiline nose, is typical of Mannerism.

Sylvie Béguin, ‘The Art of Painting and Sculpture byAmbroise Dubois’ , *La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France*, 1979 , 3, pp. 229–233.

Barbara Gaehtgens, ‘Gérard van Honthorst’s Artemisia, or the Queen’s Two Bodies’, Revue de l’Art, 1995, no. 109.

Yann Rodier, ‘Marie de Médicis and the Symbolic Representations of a Queen of Peace, or the Regency’s Strategy of “Making People See and Believe” (1610–1617)’, *Europa Moderna. Journal of History and Iconology No. 2 / 2011. The Post-Henri IV Era. pp. 78–108.